Though 2020 brought many changes to how our committee has operated, the RMA Student Committee continued our mission of taking an active role in shaping and promoting student-related activities of the RMA by switching to an online, remote-based approach.
With the help of Zoom and other online tools, we are proud to say our annual BFE/RMA Research Students’ Conference, hosted by the University of Cambridge, went on as scheduled for January, 2021. Though the conference was completely virtual, we were still able to bring you all the benefits from an in-person experience, which included: skills training sessions, student papers, composition and performance workshops, concerts, and social events.
Likewise, we hosted our elections for new RMA Student Committee members during the BFE/RMA Research Students’ Conference 2021. We are happy to announce the newest members of the committee from January, 2021. We are pleased to announce your committee for 2021 below:
Student Representatives for 2021:
• Elsa Marshall, University of Sheffield
Elsa Marshall is a final year PhD student at the University of Sheffield. Elsa’s interdisciplinary research is on the history and analysis of film music composed during the Hollywood studio era and utilises archival and digital research methods. She received her MA from the University of Ottawa where she researched local silent film music practices and digital musicology and played viola in university and community ensembles.
• Barbora Vacková, University of Huddersfield
Barbora Vacková is a 2nd year PhD candidate and recipient of the Scholarship in Contemporary Music Studies at the University of Huddersfield. Barbora’s research project focuses on Czechoslovak women composers during the communist era (1948-1989) and conditions for female compositional activity within a socialist state. Barbora obtained her bachelor’s degree in Musicology & English and American Studies and master’s degree in Musicology at Charles University in Prague.
Ordinary Student Members for 2021:
• David Dewar, University of Bristol
David Dewar is a mature, part-time PhD candidate in the Music department at the University of Bristol. His research interest falls in professional and amateur music-making in the early twentieth century, in their interactions and collaborations. His project is part-tunded by the Colston Research Society. The use of music in social prescribing is also one of his contemporary inter-disciplinary themes. David has been a musician for many years, latterly as a professional organist, harpsichordist, and conductor. For some years in the 80s/90s David was also a freelance horn- and handhorn-player. He is currently Director of Music at the Dame Monica Wills Chapel, the university’s only collegiate-style chapel.
• Madison Miller, University of Wolverhampton
Madison Miller is a 2nd year international PhD student studying music soundscapes at the University of Wolverhampton. Her current research is a multimedia creative practice in soundscapes, incorporating sights and sounds through online channels. Her academic background is in various subjects, having a BA in Philosophy, English, and Psychology (USA), and an MA in Media and Communication (UK).
• Zhengyi Zhu, University of Oxford
Zhengyi Zhu currently studies musicology at the University of Oxford. He is interested in historical musicology and German nationalism in the 19th century, Asian propaganda music in the cold war, and the reception history of Western art music in East Asia. Aside from his academic interests, he is also an occasional composer, conductor, and cellist.
• Sio Pan Leong, University of Edinburgh
Sio Pan Leong is a PhD candidate and tutor of an undergraduate course on 19th- and 20th-century music history at the University of Edinburgh. He received scholarships and completed his BFA Music at the National Taiwan University of Arts and MMus Musicology at the University of Edinburgh. He is interested in the concept of dreams as it intersects with philosophy and the arts, especially literature and music of the Romantic tradition. His PhD project, funded by the Macau government, focuses on the aesthetic and psychoanalytic investigation of Schubert’s ‘dreamlike’ music.
We are pleased to have our new committee in place for 2021 and look forward to this year!
By Madison Miller